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Hello Expression Engine folks,

The web development company that I work for has recently obtained a contract to create a new portion of an existing website. As the current website was created using the Expression Engine we are probably going to use it as well to maintain consistency, although we are used to writing our own PHP and using our repositories. In any case, the only thing holding us back from simply buying a copy and hopping in is that we are not quite sure if it will meet our needs.

What we need to do with the Expression Engine is set up a site that allows the user to search for different companies based on specific search queries. All of the company information will be stored in a MySQL database. Just a few hundred companies with various products and services. This is a relatively simple task in straight PHP. Will Expression Engine be compatible with a standard MySQL database and allow us to search with user input easily?

Everything I’ve read points to “yes”, but I haven’t found any specific examples of this functionality so I thought it best to check. The tutorials and walkthroughs that I’ve read/watched have me impressed by Expression Engine, I am curious to see what else it is capable of (although a part of me is afraid of it pushing us PHP developers out of business…)

Thanks a lot.

Hi bidbits,

Thanks for your interest in ExpressionEngine!

EE is built on CodeIgniter, our fantastic PHP application framework, and runs atop MySQL - so you will be right at home!

What we need to do with the Expression Engine is set up a site that allows the user to search for different companies based on specific search queries. All of the company information will be stored in a MySQL database. Just a few hundred companies with various products and services. This is a relatively simple task in straight PHP. Will Expression Engine be compatible with a standard MySQL database and allow us to search with user input easily?

Let me see if I can shift your thinking - this *is* what ExpressionEngine does! EE is a flexible and extendable CMS. Using Channels, Channel Fields and some search add-ons, you can build it all in ExpressionEngine.

EE includes a native Search Module, but there are 2 well respected search add-ons that can supercharge what can be done. Look at the fetters of Low Search and Super Search.

Everything I’ve read points to “yes”, but I haven’t found any specific examples of this functionality so I thought it best to check. The tutorials and walkthroughs that I’ve read/watched have me impressed by Expression Engine, I am curious to see what else it is capable of (although a part of me is afraid of it pushing us PHP developers out of business…)

No worries there! You can just become ExpressionEngine add-on developers 😉 EE is the foundation for a thriving community of third-party add-on authors. However, you can leverage what you already know and create custom add-ons for your projects, ExpressionEngine offers a robust set of Development tools.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers,

Thanks a lot Dan, you’ve answered all of my questions. I’m sure I’ll be back for tips and tricks once we get neck deep into the EE.

Hey bidbits,

I am glad to see that Dan was able to help you out!

Thanks again and welcome to the forums!

Cheers,